Shell agrees to buy India’s Sprng Energy

(Bloomberg) -- Shell Plc agreed to buy Indian renewable power supplier Sprng Energy Pvt for $1.55 billion, accelerating the oil giant’s transition to low-carbon energy. 

The deal will triple Shell’s operational renewables capacity and help it achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, the company said in a statement on Friday. The transaction was first reported by Bloomberg. 

“This deal positions Shell as one of the first movers in building a truly integrated energy transition business in India,” said Wael Sawan, director of Shell’s integrated gas, renewables and energy solutions division. “It will enable Shell to become a leader across the power value chain in a rapidly growing market.”

Pivoting to renewable energy after more than a century of pumping oil, Shell has been criticized for not progressing quickly enough by some activists. The company plans to put its energy-transition progress report to a non-binding vote at its annual shareholder meeting scheduled for May 24.

Sprng Energy is a renewable energy platform set up by private equity firm Actis with a commitment of $450 million from one of the firm’s funds, according to its website. It has about 2,503 megawatt-peak of solar projects and roughly 498 MW of wind projects operating or in development, the website shows.

“With Sprng we have built a renewable energy platform that will be fundamental in driving India’s net-zero journey,” Lucy Heintz, a partner and head of energy infrastructure at Actis, said in a statement. “We look forward to creating more Sprngs with our latest fund, Actis Energy 5,” which was formed in October with $6 billion of investable capital. 

The Shell deal is subject to regulatory clearance and is expected to close later in 2022, according to the statement. 

(Updates with comment from Actis in sixth paragraph.)

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